PLYMOUTH, N.H. – Professor of Education Trish Lindberg of Plymouth State University was presented with the 2003 Youth Theatre Director of the Year Award by the American Alliance for Theatre and Education (AATE) at the National AATE Convention in New York City, Saturday, August 2.

“Working with young people and the arts is an exciting and extremely fulfilling journey that I hope will never end,” Lindberg said. “To be honored nationally for the work I have done with children and theatre is a humbling experience. I am first and foremost a teacher, and yet I always feel that I learn far more from the children than I ever give back to them. My work is a collaborative process with other artists and the children themselves. We all share this award equally.”

Nominated by Dr. Robert Colby, director of theatre education at Emerson College in Boston, Mass., Lindberg was chosen for this national honor in recognition of her work with the Kearsarge Arts Theatre (KAT) Company, which she founded in 1981. KAT is a fine and performing arts summer program for young people ages four to 18, the largest summer arts organization of its kind in New England. KAT has received numerous awards, including the NETC Moss Hart Award for Best Children’s Theatre and the prestigious Moss Hart Trophy for Best Overall Production of 2002 for “A You and Me World.” Another KAT production, “Mail to the Chief,” traveled to Washington, D.C., to perform by invitation on the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage.

The AATE promotes standards of excellence in theatre and theatre education, provides opportunities to connect artists, educators, researchers and scholars with each other, and helps artists, educators and scholars to learn, exchange, expand and diversify their work, their audience and their perspective. The Youth Theatre Director of the Year Award honors an individual for outstanding achievement as a director of youth theatre. The recipient must be an artistic, educational or management director in a theatre in which some or all of the performers are young people, and must serve as a model of excellence and innovation.

Lindberg was recently named the 2003 Distinguished Teacher at Plymouth State, as well as one of New Hampshire’s six most remarkable women by New Hampshire Magazine. She also serves as artistic director for two Plymouth State University programs: the Educational Theatre Collaborative and TIGER (Theatre Integrating Guidance Education), and as coordinator of the PSU Master of Education program.